Oh yeah, it's those big kanji on the right, didn't even think to check. Well... that's pretty inconclusive. Could really just mean that we're getting a few episodes in a row before another long hiatus... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Intense stuff. The depiction of Femto/bird's head, wow. I also really love the V style of the mouth opening.

That's a good point. But time after time, there's one character who's always showed up to resolve that threat. The question is, does it make sense for him to manifest here?

I hope it does, actually, not so much to mollify Guts-dog, but because I hope that underlying Casca's motherly instincts, there is a deeper connection or attachment to her lost son that the fragment/return to sanity will add clarity (and more questions) to. The final shard's container resembles the womb/chamber of the eclipse, but with Femto already flying around, I wonder if it'll depict the corruption of her fetus more than her own violation.

Good point! The egg shape of the barbs around the final fragment always struck me as strange, given that Casca wasn't conscious during Femto's "hatching" or emergence at the Eclipse. But it could also just be a protective shape, period.

Miura's comment:As for my figure shelf*, it was filled with S.I.C. Shôwa Rider in the blink of an eye. Finished with a Hot Toys Hulkbuster. ＼(^o^)／

*It usually refers to two or more shelves on the wall in Japanese.

Thanks as always, Puella! I said so on the SkullKast, but it's just so weird for me to think of Miura admiring an Avengers figure (he watches the same movies I do?!) That being said, the "Hot Toys" Hulkbuster statue is indeed pretty sweet (and $999.99). If he has an eye for quality, it makes me wonder what he thinks of Berserk's legacy of statues/figures, and why they stuck with Art of War for so long...

We'll have 353 in just a few days (hours maybe). Needless to say, we're at the climax of the corridor of dreams sequence, and this next episode could be a whirlwind.

We've been talking about how Miura would portray the trauma of the Eclipse ever since the possibility of exploring Casca's mental world was introduced. And between 351-352, we got — well, most of it. But I wonder how Miura will portray the rape itself. That has to be the fragment. The other memory fragments were shown exclusively from Casca's perspective (which is awesome). Aaz said so on the podcast, and I agree: I have a hard time imagining any other visual image for Miura to use for that scene but Casca making eye contact with Guts, pinned down and bleeding ("Don't look"). It would perfectly convey Guts' and Casca's trauma to Schierke and Farnese. That being said ... I'm not sure I want to see Miura draw that heart-wrenching scene again. Afterall, revisiting the Bonfire of Dreams sequence effortlessly summoned old emotions in me and many other readers. So for this next one ... I'm kind of mentally preparing myself for it.

I feel pretty silly at this point, because for years my biggest criticism of how Miura has told his story has been Guts keeping his companions in the dark for so long, not opening up about his history. But it's clear now that Miura was waiting for the right vehicle to convey that traumatic information. For a variety of reasons, Guts simply recounting his sordid past over a campfire chat would be a huge missed opportunity. It would also make Casca's side of the story effectively secondary. But with the corridor of dreams, he introduced a truly novel way to fulfill that need AND restore Casca's mind AND show Farnese and Schierke experiencing those moments, while growing and truly understanding these characters in a way that a simple information dump never could. Having these key memories come alive, able to convey feelings to the witnesses, is a step ahead of even time travel (without the messy side effects). Furthermore, it recontextualizes those memories with where these characters are now, setting the stage for whatever Miura does with them next.

So I suppose this is a long-winded way of apologizing for thinking Miura was going about it the wrong way all this time